I guess it depends where you live/work. In my region, we're pretty well protected by "les normes du travail". There's still unions in some industries, but most of them are just corrupt thugs not looking out for the union members. As for certifications, I guess we have some, but not that much, for example, you can't be an engineer without a degree and a license. Also, it kinda grinds my gears when people say that web development is a blue collar job. A blue collar job is manual work, web development is the furthest thing from blue collar work, it's insulting to blue collar workers. Great article nonetheless.